King Kong

Directed by John Guillermin, King Kong follows several characters, including Jeff Bridges’ Jack Prescott, Charles Grodin’s Fred S. Wilson, and Jessica Lange’s Dwan, as they eventually (and inevitably) run afoul of the gargantuan title creature. Filmmaker Guillermin, armed with Lorenzo Semple Jr.’s screenplay, delivers an excessively erratic blockbuster that fares best in its surprisingly engaging and entertaining opening stretch, as King Kong, which runs a disastrously overlong 134 minutes, kicks off with an appealing opening stretch that effectively establishes the disaster-movie-like atmosphere and roster of agreeable, affable central characters – with, in terms of the latter, the picture receiving plenty of mileage out of the three stars’ engaging, charismatic work. (Lange, making her debut here, is especially good as the dimwitted but tremendously affable Dwan.) It’s disappointing to note, then, that King Kong slowly-but-surely wears out its welcome as it progresses into a meandering, wheel-spinning midsection, with the heavy emphasis on Kong and Dwan’s less-than-engrossing exploits together paving the way for a second half that contains few wholeheartedly compelling sequences – which, when coupled with a special-effects-heavy yet hilariously unconvincing climax, cements the film’s place as a fairly palpable misfire that squanders its promising setup and performances.

** out of ****